Attention
by Axcent
Summary: Honestly, Matt was kidding when he said he wanted more attention from Mello. He really never wanted to come to the Mall at all.


For a lovely person: Mrs L Lawliet 162. Also extremely patient. ThruSpring said I could do it! You will notice extreme bipolar tendencies on my part in this fic seeing as I wrote most of it in late/early and probably should have been sleeping~ in fact, this morning, I didn't even remember writing half of it. This was a request for ThruSpring and I's joint account, but I forgot the password and promised I'd post tonight, so it's on here instead... *dies*

Attention

Mello smirked, stretching the taught fabric over his long fingers and pushing out his slender arm to admire the gloves he had picked out in his favourite store, one dedicated only to his preferred style of dressing. The walls were covered in leather jackets, leather pants, leather vests, leather gloves. It was heaven in black.

"Mels, those are over a hundred dollars!" Mello had almost forgotten that Matt had followed him to the mall, strange behaviour for the redhead.

"You'll get over it." He snapped, curling and uncurling his fingers before pulling out his wallet. "Stop whining. You're the one who wanted to come." The man at the counter grinned when Mello laid his purchases out on the counter. Mello was every leather shop owner's dream customer, glistening and squeaking with the stuff, head to toe.

"I didn't _really _want to come…" Matt was mumbling behind him, glaring at the register as it swallowed Mello's money. "But you always go shopping and leave me alone and you ignore me sometimes and it's not very nice and-". It was then that Mello stopped him.

"You want attention, hmm, Matty?" The blonde boy purred, running a finger under his boyfriend's chin, new gloves already covering his smooth fingertips.

Matt gulped. "Not in the middle of a public place." That seemed like a reasonable demand. Now he just had to hope Mello would listen, though the chance of that was very slim.

The man behind the counter blinked and swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. He was unsure. He could kick these two boys out, (he disliked public displays of attention, especially between two people of the same gender) but this blonde one was easily the fattest wallet he'd ever seen. He also had sharp, scary eyes. It was best to wait patiently and watch the counter, think about something else... block out the voices.

"I'll be more than happy to oblige." Mello purred, shifting his weight, admiring the contrast between his Matt's pale skin and the perfect newness of his leather clad fingers.

Matt cleared his throat and stepped away, watching that man who was tapping away awkwardly at his register, as though he were busy. It was clear neither of them wanted to be here, and Matt almost tried to smile apologetically, but Mello was pulling at his arm and smiling might have seemed creepy anyway.

"Attention, hmm Matty?" Mello wouldn't stop repeating as he led the redhead through masses of shoppers, glaring at girls who giggled and brushed their hair behind their ears, hiding their whispering mouths with their painted fingers, fluttering their eyelashes and snorting at the red around Matt's ears. "Poor baby, dragged around shopping because he wanted _attention_."

Mello's grip around Matt's wrist was feeling more and more restraining as that tell-tale smirk grew and intensified in its deviance. Stores passed in lights and bright posters and bursts of choice music, mannequins poised in suspended animation, plastic, unmoving dancers dressed in various outfits. People passed in much the same way, blurs of jumping, strutting, rushing, browsing colours. Matt saw them all out of the corner of his eye as he followed the blonde torrent in front of him, trying to avoid the looks Mello always attracted so easily.

"I think I've had enough attention now." The redhead's words were not a statement, they were a suggestion, a question in their uncertain quality, and Mello knew it. He only pulled the other boy closer to him, wrapped a bare arm around the striped waist, settled a hand around a hip, where his digits had every right to be, in his opinion. The soft dust of pink across the owner of that hip told of agreement, despite the obvious attempts to dispel the blonde.

"Enough attention my ass." Mello laughed, a low, gruff sound. Matt blushed harder, slowing his pace and leaning against Mello so the other would take all his weight if he tried to walk any faster. This trip was proving to be exhausting, and they were passing all the good stores. GameStop: not even a glance on Mello's part. The Source: no acknowledgment. Matt sighed.

A turn revealed a new view of mannequins, twisting plastic limbs in frilly lingerie, women crowded around the large open space between the two transparent show case windows. Mello's stomach turned with the sheer brilliance of the images that played in a delicious movie through his head, and he pulled on Matt as the other boy tried to slip off in the other direction, sensing, after knowing Mello all the years he had, that gears were turning behind those shocking blue eyes, that thoughts were spinning, webs were linking.

"We have business here, Matty." Mello grinned. "It'll be funny." The last words were meant as reassurance, a ploy to banish the twist of Matt's hidden eyebrows, the downturn of his pale lips, the suspicion and defiance in his covered eyes. Mello was an expert liar, could make Matt trust him even when nobody else would even think for a second to step lightly into that store, between racks of ladies underwear, into a mass of pink and purple and flossy blue. Matt just happened to be incredibly stupid when it came to Mello, and he wondered what the other had in mind, even when he should have known, as his lover started picking things out, glaring at the costumers who stared at this overbearing blonde and the slightly nervous boy following him.

"This'll be fun." Mello's original guise changed into something more truthful. For him, this would be less _funny_ as it would be _fun_. He clacked his way towards the changing area, pulling Matt behind him.

"Okay, fun, sure," The redhead muttered, hoping no one would overhear them, colours of embarrassment stretching down his neck. "But I'm not going in there." Matt's mind caught up with him, at long last, as he stood in front of a change room door, no one stopping Mello from turning the silvery handle, pushing it away from him to reveal a small, carpeted space, a full body mirror perched daintily on one wall, projecting Matt's flustered face and Mello's haughty, dark eyed one.

The blonde was still muttering about attention under his breath, not bothering to answer Matt's demand or let him struggle out from between his gloved fingers, pushing the redhead into the change room and slipping in after him.

"No." Matt looked at Mello as best he could without brushing the blonde's chin with his nose, inches from the other's chest, pressed against beige wallpaper, feeling the tickle of a bra strap against one of his hands, Mello's knee pressed against the outside of his thigh, one of the blonde's booted feet perched on the bench behind him.

"_Yes_." The blonde purred, smirking cruelly and tracing his fingertips along the hem of Matt's loose shirt, suppressing a laugh as the pinned boy squirmed. Yes, this would be fun.

"I don't like your definition of fun, Mello. Maybe we should go to the bookstore and buy a dictionary."

Mello chuckled lightly at this, smiling in a falsely sympathetic way at the wriggling Matt and thumbing the clasp on the bra he'd picked up. With a practiced hand, he lifted Matt's shirt over his head and tossed it nonchalantly to the floor, sucking in a breathe to stem his laughter as the redhead tried to glare, his eyes narrowing behind his goggles, fixed on Mello's golden face. He was trying so hard not to look at the lacy lingerie clasped between Mello's fingers, not to watch as the blonde unclipped it and lifted his arm, trying to pull it onto him.

"Okay, funny," Matt gasped, as he felt the fabric creep up his arm. "This was funny. Ha ha. Now let's get out of here. You've had your fun."

Mello shook his head, pressing closer to Matt to stop him trying to escape, even though his words were the only things denying him. "I'm not quite done yet." He murmured. "Relax. I told you this would be fun, so let it be fun, you uptight asshole."

Matt snorted his disapproval, pursing his lips at Mello and putting his hands on his hips. "This is embarrassing."

"You'll get over it."

And then the bra was snapped shut behind Matt's back, and Mello leaned back with a satisfied glint in his eyes, one that contrasted drastically with Matt's annoyed expression.

"Tell you what, Matty." Mello said, touching his nose to the blushing boy's, "I'll just _buy _this stuff, so you won't have to be worried about "public displays of attention" and all that crap you're so strict about." Mello didn't take the time to let Matt answer, before he tugged Matt's shirt back on, gathered the numerous things he had taken from the racks, and dragged the boy back into the busy store, where numerous people were staring unabashedly.

For the second time that day, Mello plopped his purchases down in front of a flustered cashier, holding Matt's hand without glancing at him once.

The girl started ringing through the items, her cheeks red, and her smile tight. "That'll be 106.92$" She told them, clearing her throat before she spoke.

Mello huffed and looked over his shoulder. "I wouldn't have to spend this much if you weren't so opposed to sex in change rooms."


End file.
